Doctors: Coffee Bad But Smoking Worse

November 12, 1985|By United Press International

WASHINGTON — A study released Monday showed people who drink five or more cups of coffee a day are almost three times more likely to suffer heart disease, but the evidence is too weak to urge Americans to curtail their coffee habit.

Scientists prominent in heart disease research said during presentation of the study that other investigations have turned up no link between heart disease and coffee consumption and that smoking is more dangerous.

Dr. Lynn Rosenberg of Boston University School of Medicine said overall evidence was insufficient to support either the presence or absence of a link between heart disease and coffee drinking.

''I think people should stop smoking rather than drinking coffee, which has been implicated in some studies and freed in others,'' she said, adding she could not comment specifically on the new study until it was published.

Dr. Thomas Pearson said the study did not constitute enough evidence to advise Americans -- some 75 percent of whom drink coffee -- unequivocally to cut down on consumption. He did suggest it wouldn't hurt to drink two cups a day or less as part of a moderate lifestyle.

The study focused on 1,130 white male medical students who graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School between 1948 and 1964 and who are now age 45 to 65, according to Pearson, a Johns Hopkins associate professor of medicine and epidemiology and an author of the study.

Those who drank five or more cups of coffee a day were 2.8 times more likely to suffer coronary artery disease than non-coffee drinkers, the study found. No distinction was made between regular coffee and decaffeinated.

An estimated 4.6 million Americans suffer coronary artery disease, the gradual narrowing and eventual blockage of arteries leading to the heart. It is a major cause of death from heart attack. Heart diseases combined are the top cause of death.